liuzhou

Lamb with both cumin seed and powder, chili, coriander leaf, Chinese chives, asparagus and cordyceps militaris mushrooms, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce. Served with rice.

It's the end of civilisation. I've just discovered the creeping pestilence of veganism has reached out and defiled the greatness that is 螺蛳粉 (luó sī fěn)! Is nothing sacred? Are they insane?

China is extremely proud of its Great Wall, taking all foreign dignitaries to visit and also promoting it to every tourist. It is surely one of the most defining images of a country along with France's Eiffel Tower, the USA's Statue of Liberty and the UK's Tower Bridge. Great Wall - Public Domain image What they never mention is that their 'great' wall was never finished and was a total failure in meeting its objective. Or that the bit most tourists visit (including the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1986) was built in the 1970s by the People's Liberation Army, the original having been repurposed by local villagers to built their privies. Mrs Queen on Great Wall 1986. PD Image But we do have the benefit of knowing what the builders had for lunch and dinner. Archeological studies show they lived predominantly on boiled rice and pickled cabbage. When Ghengis Khan, the Mongol leader easily breached the wall they were building to keep him and others out, he found the pickled cabbage and mistook it for a weapon of mass destruction, so immediately set out for Europe, taking it with him to subdue the barbarians. In what is now Germany, they translated his name for the weapon, ᠬᠦᠴᠢᠯ ᠨᠣᠭᠣᠭ᠎ᠠ ᠃ into their tongue as 'sauerkraut', meaning 'sour vegetable', but with 'kraut' usually meaning 'cabbage' the only vegetable available in Germany at the time apart from sausages. Something of a coincidence because the Chinese Khan left behind also translated it. Because they didn't speak German, they translated it into Mandarin as 酸菜 (suān cài), literally sour vegetable, but with 'cài' usually meaning 'cabbage' the only vegetable available in Beijing at the time. This 'cài' is the origin of the pseudo-Cantonese 'choy' used in the West in 'bok choy' etc. Dongbei Suan Cai Hearing that this concoction was employed in wall building, the Germans, anticipating that they may one day have to build a wall themselves, adopted the dish as their own. The Chinese, meanwhile anticipating that they might one day have to repair their wall to show off to passing queens, also kept up the production of sour cabbages. S: 东北酸菜; T: 東北酸菜 (dōng běI suān cài) is sometimes called 'Chinese sauerkraut' although, to be more accurate, sauerkraut is 'German 酸菜'. Dongbei means East-North and refers to the area which used to be called Manchuria on account of the Manchu people, another group who ignored the wall built to keep them out and took over China, conquering Beijing in 1644. Whether they used cabbages or not, I don't know. In the 1930s, Japan also ignored the wall and took over Manchuria until 1945 which turned people against them and so, in revenge, the communists changed the name so the Japanese couldn't find their way back. The Chinese kept making stinking cabbage though, rather defeating that subterfuge. Beijing smells of cabbage. Follow your nose. And still to this day, Dong Bei Sour Cabbage is made by home cooks and in factories to be sold all over China. It consists of napa cabbage, salt and water and is fermented by ambient yeasts. Commercial varieties add sodium sorbate as a preservative. $1 USD / 500g. Dongbei Suancai Down in the south of China, not wanting to be thought of as cabbage heads, the people make their 酸菜 from mustard greens instead. And no, the Great Wall can't be seen from space although the cabbage can probably be smelled.

The first time I ate Chinese food was in the 1960s in Scotland. This was in an 'authentic' restaurant above a butcher's shop in a small mining town. I forget what I ate but guess it was as authentic as Japanese haggis. I do remember, however being served a plate of what were described as 'prawn crackers', the prefered term in the UK to this day. Every Chinese meal I ate in the UK thereafter and there were many, especially when I was a student in London, came with the obligatory prawn crackers, right up to when I left the UK in the 90s and moved to China. Since then, I've only ever been served a prawn / shrimp cracker / chip once and it was literally one, resting soggily on top of a plate of fried rice. Breaking news! Prawn crackers / shrimp chips aren't Chinese! They're from Indonesia where they're called keripik udang. Only in very recent times, it has become possible to buy these here where they are S: 虾片; T 蝦片 (Mandarin: xiā piàn; Cantonese: haa1 pin3). Strangely, I can only find them on my delivery app, not in supermarkets. Not that I want them. They are mainly sold precooked in bags just like potato crisps/chips. Most are imported from Indonesia but I've also seen them from Thailand where they are ข้าวเกรียบกุ้ง (khao kriap kung) and Vietnam as bánh phồng tôm. We can also source manufactured but uncooked discs, again usually imported as above, although there are a couple of Chinese brands. They come in two varieties: plain white and multi-coloured. These are made from tapioca, MSG and maybe prawns /shrimp if you're lucky. Cheaper versions are made using powdered shells or prawn extract, whatever that may be. Whatever you call them, they are a high calorie starter and not particularly healthy. What chips are? Images from Meituan food delivery app listings.

I'll mention mushrooms once more because I don't know who buys this, or why, but it's available everywhere in multiple brands. With such a wide range of fungi available, what possesses them? S: 香菇酱; T: 香菇醬 (xiāng gū jiàng) is industrial paste made using the most common mushroom here - 香菇 (xiāng gū) in Mandarin Chinese; hoeng1 gu1 in Cantonese; しいたけ or 椎茸 in Japanese; Lentinula erodes in Latin; and known in English as 'shiitake' from the Japanese. These are mixed with oil, doubanjiang (broad bean sauce), sweet bean sauce, fermented black bean, chilli, sesame, salt and sugar - all standard pantry items here. What people do with the stuff is a mystery; no one I know admits to using it. Pretty jar though. This one costs 15.90元 / $2.30 USD for 230 grams. Pass.

Yesterday, I mentioned in the Dinner 2024 topic that between them my local supermarket and wet market had 18 different types of mushroom. That was just the fresh mushrooms; the dried type would have taken it higher. One type I didn't buy is found wild in Tibet and parts of Yunnan province. This is དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ། (yarsagumba) in Tibetan; S: 冬虫夏草; T: 冬蟲夏草 (dōng chóng xià cǎo) in Chinese; Cordyceps sinensis or Ohphiocordyceps sinensis in Latin; caterpillar fungus in English. Cordyceps Sinensis in my local supermarket This is a fungus that attracts scare-mongering click bait on the internet and idiotic headlines in the print media. 'Zombie fungus' 'The Most Terrifying Fungus You've Ever Seen' I'm told that there is a PlayStation game, "The Last of Us" which is nonsensically based on this fungus potentially wiping out mankind. According to the more sober OED, this is : "A genus of ascomycetous fungi of the family Cordycipitaceae, members of which are parasitic chiefly on insects, replacing the host tissue with mycelium and producing prominent elongated fruiting bodies. Also: a fungus of (or previously included in) this genus; esp. Ophiocordyceps sinensis, used medicinally and in Chinese cookery." Sounds tasty. Not. Yes, basically these fungi take over the host's body eventually killing it and sprouting out of its head. The Chinese name literally means "winter insect; summer grass" reflecting the change. If you are an insect, get worried. Each of the hundreds of cordyceps varieties only attacks one specific species of insect. The main reason I didn't buy them is a) I didn't want to b) They are hideously expensive. Between $6 and $10 USD or more for just one specimen the size of a matchstick c) They taste of almost nothing They are reputed to bring medical benefits but, as usual, this is largely unsubstantiated by anything so inconvenient as actual scientific evidence. However, I do occasionally buy their close cousin, Cordyceps militaris. Cordyceps militaris (fresh) These are cultivated but kept away from the ants whose bodies they would prey on in the wild. They are supposedly imbued with the same therapeutic qualities of their near relations but in weaker form. These are cheap, very mild in taste at best but make for an attractive garnish on the right dish. but are more usually included in chicken or pork bones soups for their supposed health qualities. When I was hospitalised last year, every soup contained them.

Well, this didn't go to plan. It was meant to be finished with the coriander leaf and Chinese chives I 'definitely' had in the fridge but didn't. Despite the supermarket and the wet market I visited today between them having 18 different types of mushroom, I picked the plain old white buttons. Hey, they're exotic round here! Anyway I stir fried them with shrimp (bought live and wriggling), garlic, ginger, fish sauce, Shaoxing and S: 辣豆瓣酱; T 辣豆瓣醬 (là dòu bàn jiàng), Spicy Sichuan fava bean sauce. The shrimp shells and heads are in the freezer for stock sometime later.

This webpage disagrees. In fact, it disagrees so much, it disagrees with itself, too. But interesting discussion. https://thecookingfacts.com/is-beef-shank-the-same-as-shin/

As I said. The fresh buckwheat noodles I pictured are pure buckwheat in the sense that they don't contain wheat. The dried are not.

I think you mean buckwheat is 'not' a grass. 100% buckwheat noodles can't work; they need some starch component to come together.

I'm not allergic, but I don't particularly like it. However, it is very interesting. I was surprised to learn it is not only used in China, but originated here.

This grain is not a grain; it's a pseudo-grain in that it isn't a grass but the seed of a flowering plant. It originated in SW China but is now grown around the world. Both its English and Chinese names are somewhat misleading. I'm talking about buckwheat, which isn't related at all to wheat or to buck in any of its many meanings. The 'buck' part is a corruption of 'beech' and the 'wheat' part is related to 'white'. It isn't beech or white either! It has etymons in most Germanic languages. The Chinese name S: 荞麦; T: 蕎麥 (qiáo mài) also includes the character 麦/麥, meaning 'wheat'. Buckwheat is a friend to those with celiac disease as it is gluten free, but see the warning below. Should anyone visiting China need to know, celiac disease is S; 乳糜泻; T: 乳糜瀉 (rǔ mí xiè). Two types of buckwheat are grown. Fagopyrum esculentum, common buckwheat, mainly in the north including Inner Mongolia; and F. Tartaricum, Tartary buckwheat, in the southwest including Yunnan and Tibet. The latter is now being called Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat by the wellness wankers and paleo plonkers trying to cash in on the so-called Himalayan pink salt craze. The grains are ground into S: 荞麦面粉; T; 荞麦麵粉 (qiáo mài miàn fěn), buckwheat flour, which is used to make S: 馒头; T: 饅頭 (mán tou), steamed buns Buckwheat flour Buckwheat flour Steamed buckwheat buns and S: 荞麦挂面; T: 荞麦掛麵 (qiáo mài guà miàn), buckwheat noodles. Dried buckwheat noodles Fresh buckwheat noodles The noodles are used as any other and can be served in soups or fried. Warning: Be careful. Many brands of buckwheat noodles also contain wheat, so aren't gluten-free. Pure buckwheat noodles are available. Check the ingredients list. If you see 麦 listed without the preceding 荞, then that's almost certainly wheat. If you see S: 小麦; T: 小麥 (xiǎo mài), that's definitely wheat. In Yunnan province, the Yi ethnic minority make a type of buckwheat flatbread called 粑粑 (bā bā). Yi ba ba flatbread Do not confuse this with 糖油粑粑 (táng yóu bā bā), a sweet sticky rice snack made from glutinous rice and honey in Hunan. And, again, buckwheat turns up in congee mixes For more on the history of buckwheat in China, see here. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-017-0649-4

The UK's Independent Television News (ITV) is, for one of the few foreign news sites not blocked by Beijing's paranoid censors. Unfortunately, it is semi-literate at best. Typos and downright errors are the norm. They routinely use 'infer' when they mean 'imply', one of my many pet hates. This garbage assaulted me this morning before my first coffee. Unforgivable! "William Maughan keeps 30,000 free range hens near Darlington. Like all British farmers his birds are vaccinated against salmonella." All farmers aren't vaccinated! All farmers' birds are! Which is what they meant to convey. Grrr! https://www.itv.com/news/2024-03-19/polish-chicken-imports-may-be-banned-as-salmonella-cases-rise

My breakfast was a B囗T because I forgot to buy L.

I regularly eat ants, as reported here. https://forums.egullet.org/topic/139109-eating-jiminy-cricket-insects-as-food/page/3/#comment-2405720

The next ingredient is an ancient grain. There is archaeological evidence of it being eaten in China in Neolithic times and it was cultivated at least 7,500 years ago. It was eaten even before China stumbled across rice. Husked but uncooked rice is 大米 (dà mǐ) in Chinese with 大 meaning 'large'. Here, I want to look at 小米 (xiǎo mǐ) with 小 meaning 'small'. These sizes are referring to the grain's relative dimensions. Millet is a small grained grass of which there are many types. Two main types are commonly harvested in China: broomcorn millet (Paniceum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica), the latter being, by far, the dominant species. Each species comes in two varieties. Besides regular millet, we also have 粘小米 (nián xiǎo mǐ), glutinous millet. Regular millet contains 20% amylose and 80% amylopectin, and glutinous millet contains 100% amylopectin which makes it sticky when cooked. Instead of cooking it, it is mainly used in the making alcoholic beverages including beer. The regular millet is, like sorghum, mainly used in congees, either on its own or in mixed grain types. It is also occasionally used in some baked cakes and cookies/biscuits.

I've gone all Sino-Thai-Caledonian with a plate of a Scottish classic - stovies. Made with minced beef and Chinese celery, potatoes, Thai fish sauce and hispi cabbage. I added black pepper after taking the photo. HP Sauce would have been better but I don't have any.

So associated with China is rice, especially in the south, that it would be forgivable to think that's the only grain used. However, it couldn't be more wrong. The grains on offer in any supermarket outstrip anything I've ever seen in any western supermarket. One of the most important is 高粱 (gāo liáng), Sorghum vulgare, sorghum. The name is derived from Latin. There are four main types of sorghum: forage, biomass, sweet sorghum, and grain sorghum. The name 'milo' is often used to refer to sorghum, especially in America but technically only means the last named, grain sorghum, Sorghum bicolor. Grain sorghum originated in Africa and the milo name is derived from the Sotho, mailo. The first two sorghum varieties above are used as animal feed and fuel with only the last two normally being consumed by humans. Sweet sorghum is also called cane sorghum or Chinese sugar cane. It is the source of sorghum syrup aka sorghum molasses. Grain sorghum can be made into a gluten-free flour (sometimes called jowar or jawar flour - from the Hindi name जवार (jawār)). Grain sorghum In China, sorghum is important in three main applications. 1) 白酒 (bái jiǔ). This is China's favourite liquor and the best brands are made from sorghum. China's semi-official national drink S:贵州茅台; T: 貴州茅臺 (guì zhōu máo tái) is a type of baijiu made in the town of Maotai in Guizhou province. It is one of only two products allowed to keep the old pre-Mao transliteration - Kweichow Moutai. (The other is Tsingtao beer from Qingdao, the modern spelling.) This Maotai baijiu is served at state banquets and gifted to foreign leaders etc. It was used in 1972 by Mao to toast Nixon at their historic summit. A half litre bottle of their premium edition (S: 飞天; T: 飛天 - fēi tiān, flying fairy) will set you back around $350 USD. An aged bottle much more. The record was set in 2011 when a single bottle of a 1935 Kweichow Moutai sold for $1.55 million. Unlike lesser baijiu producers who use a mix of fermented sorghum and wheat, Moutai only uses sorghum. 2) 陕西陈醋 (shǎn xī chén cù), Shanxi Aged Vinegar This black vinegar is China's most popular and is made primarily from sorghum. See above where Chinese vinegars are discussed. 3) Cooked sorghum is eaten directly, usually as 高粱粥 (gāo liáng zhōu), sorghum congee or in mixed grain congee. Only rarely is it served with other dishes as a rice substitute. Sorghum congee

American ginseng is Panax quinquefolius but, although the chemical composition is different from Asian ginseng in some ways neither have been proved scientifically to have any medical benefit. They both taste of nothing so no culinary benefit or difference, either. American ginseng is imported to China and is expensive. I know nothing about Indian ginseng.

Yes. Very. In fact, almost always. Certainly the ginger. The pork component is usually an unsmoked ham. When I do make an elevated Chinese stock I like to use Jinhua ham but for everyday stock skip that part.

I spent hours yesterday making chicken stock in my two slow cookers from carcasses supplemented with chicken's feet, onion, dried shiitake, Chinese celery and carrot. Feet and carcass in one slow cooker Chinese celery Chilled it overnight and woke to 4 litres of beautifully jellified stock with a thin layer of chicken fat which I lifted off and reserved. Most of the stock is now in the freezer. My fridge's gift for me this morning This evening, I poached a couple of chicken thighs in some of the stock, stripped off the meat from the bones and returned it to the stock. I then par-fried some matsutake and bolete and added them to my soup. Served that to myself for dinner with some baguette. The soup was, I think, one of the best I've made (although there are no witnesses). Very tasty stock and well, matsutake and boletes. Can't lose. As usual for me, the photo doesn't do it justice. Now thinking about my freezerful of chicken stock and tomorrow.

S: 无花果; T: 無花果 (wú huā guǒ, literally 'no flower fruit'), Ficus microcarpa, figs are somewhat misnamed; although you might not see flowers, they are hiding somewhere there. This article explains. Figs are sold here fresh in season, but also dried year round. They are used in TCM but what isn't? Figs are supposed to be beneficial for grating lung ailments and coughs. Need I add there is little, if any scientific evidence behind the claims? Dried figs The main culinary use apart from as a table fruit is the dried fruit in a fig soup with pork. This is considered to be both delicious but also a healthful tonic. According to this dried fruits should be washed in COLD water before using in the soup to avoid them being sour. Not a problem I've encountered and I don't understand the science behind that. We also get these slivers of dried fig to eat as a snack, but also to add to soups and tonic teas or tisanes.

I'm sure what you fancy for dinner tonight are some "small nonvascular plants with spores and gametophytes"*. Luckily, Chinese cuisine has you covered. S: 发菜; T: 髮菜 (fà cài) (Cantonese: fat choy), Nostoc flagelliforme is known in English as long thread moss, edible black moss or hair moss (the literal translation of the Chinese). This terrestrial algae is particularly popular at Chinese New Year, not for any culinary reason but a linguistic one. The names is a near homophone of the last two characters of the New Year greeting 恭喜发财 (Mandarin: gōng xǐ fā cái; Cantonese: gong hei fat choy) meaning 'to become prosperous'. ** Until recently, this was harvested in the Gobi Desert and on the Qingdao plateau. Due to overharvesting this has now been banned almost everywhere in China only minimal production being permitted. This has led to price increases and a lot of fake moss being sold although it's not difficult to spot the fakes. The real deal is a dark bluish-green whereas the fakes are pure black. It is also produced in Vietnam, which hasn't banned it, so far as I can determine. In Vietnamese it is tóc thiên (literally 'angel hair'). Wherever it comes from, it comes cleaned and dried. When rehydrated, it visually resembles long vermicelli If you do get hold of it, a great way to use it is with dried oysters. A search for 'oysters with fat choy' will turn up recipes. It has an affinity with mushrooms and dried scallops and is used in soups and hotpot. Dried moss, dried shiitake, dried oysters, dried scallops But perhaps the best known dish for CNY is Buddha's Delight, a dish for which there are as many recipes as there are Buddhists. You could start here: https://www.adayinthekitchen.com/buddhas-delight/ * Encyclopedia Brittanica ** Actually, this is nowhere near the most common CNY greeting. S: 新年快乐; T: 新年快樂 (Mand: xīn nián kuài lè; Cant: sun nin fai lok, 'Happy New Year!) is by far the most common.

I just read this comment in response to an article on a certain internet food site. "I often ate lotus seeds growing up in congee..." Was the writer growing up in congee or the lotus seeds?

Rice flower carp, S: 禾花鱼; T: 禾花魚 (hé huā yú), Cyprinus carpio is farmed in the rice paddies of southern China and SE Asia. The fish are not only a crop but act as insecticides by eating the bugs and also fertilise the rice with their waste. Dongfried rice flower carp Most of the farmers are from China's ethnic minorities, around here the Miao and Dong peoples and they have developed delicious recipes to utilize them. Miao steamed rice flower carp fillets.